oddartist giveaway: Odd art and curious crafts from a truly twisted mind; Rhonda Brewer-Chaparro is the evil genius behind oddartist. Leave a comment to enter to win a pair of earrings made from erotica!

Kind of a slow week for me, but I’ve got a post on whether it’s worth it to watch certain graphic scenes in movies, and a bit on how social gaming may actually be a positive environment for talking about things like homophobia.

I responded to the death of Dr. George Tiller with a conversation I had with a colleague about 10 years ago. Most of the conversations I write are altered in some way; this one is as close as I can get to verbatim.

So, it has been a bloggy week. Must be because I am studying for step 1 (med school) boards with crazy mnemonics and much procrastinating.

I put up two posts about recent research showing our national cesarean section rate is misguided and has worse outcomes for the infant. First, I told about a friend in the typical situation of being refused an attempt at a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), and then in the unusual and completely medically ass backwards situation of getting a cesarean even when she showed up in labor!

Looking for a book about managing university life leads me to realise how the genre of self-help is, to all appearances, the exclusive province of neurotypicals; autistic or Asperger’s people needn’t bother to apply.

I want to join with them to call on you to support the following bills:
-The No Condoms as Evidence Bill. Please tell your legislators to stop allowing police and prosecutors to use condoms as evidence that a person engaged or intended to engage in prostitution. This is currently a VERY common practice that discourages people from carrying condoms for fear of arrest. Police also confiscate condoms.
-The Rape Shield Reform Bill. Rape victims may currently be questioned about past convictions for prostitution, under an exception to the rape shield law (which generally protects rape victims from being questioned about their sexual histories and practices), implying sex workers cannot be raped or should not be believed. This bill would change that.
-The Vacating Convictions Bill. This bill would allow victims of human trafficking to clear their records of prostitution-related offenses. Victims of (sex) trafficking (people compelled by force, threat, or coercion into sex work) are often arrested many times for prostitution-related offenses before they are able to escape, without anyone recognizing that they have been trafficked. Prostitution convictions very much hurt access to housing, employment, ability to obtain professional licenses, and parental rights. This bill would allow trafficking victims to clear their record of those convictions.

I would like to join SWP in also calling on people to oppose several bills, including a bill that would require legal sex workers (like exotic dancers, etc.) in “adult” establishments to register as “sex performers” with the goverment, and a number of bills that increase punishments, including one that increases punishments for multiple prostitution convictions.

Ladies…Firsts, Nancy Drew-loving Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is joined this month by two other recent notable First…Ladies.

Nollywood Actress Says ‘No’ To Nude Hollywood Role, Nigeria’s booming film industry, Nollywood, ranks second highest in global film production (nestled between India’s Bollywood and America’s Hollywood), and its actors are now being sought by the higher paying US studios. This new development brings with it the need for complex conversations about gender, sexuality, culture, and the lure of money.

Forgiveness from a Feminist Perspective: Norlock argues that despite what many philosophers have ignored in the relationship between gender and forgiveness, the act of forgiving is very much a gendered act. Women are overwhelmingly expected to forgive—not necessarily because they are more wronged, though that argument could certainly be made—and often, forgiveness is associated with a particular type of femininity.

Subversive Art Star: An Interview with Jerilea Zempel: Artist Jerilea Zempel turns brutal machines of war into “warm and fuzzy” sculptures through her subversive crochet projects. She achieved brief Internet stardom via The Colbert Report when Stephen Colbert called her “a dangerous returning American”—aka an artist who crochets covers for SUVs and tanks—after she was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, who discovered her artist notebook replete with line drawings of SUVs and crocheting plans.

Dunya and Desie:Desie’s world focuses around boys and her best friend Dunya, while Dunya’s life revolves around her parent’s expectations of her. Dunya being Danish Muslim, her parents expect her to adhere to family traditions, one of which includes an arranged marriage.

Given the fact that it has had more than 1000 views, and that Jill re-twittered a link to it, many of you might already have read this post. However, I still thought I’d promote it here, because I feel it’s important.